Donald Merrett
John Donald Merrett (pseudonym: Ronald Chesney ; born August 17, 1908 , † 1954 in Cologne ) was a British murderer.
He shot his mother to death in 1926 when she discovered his forged checks. The coroner Bernard Spilsbury (1877-1947) thought it was suicide, which is why Merrett was acquitted.
He changed his name to Ronald Chesney and became an internationally known black marketeer . In 1954 he murdered his wife and mother-in-law because of a liaison; Before his arrest in Cologne , he shot himself.
literature
- William Roughead (Ed.): Trial of John Donald Merrett. (= Notable British trials , No. 24). W. Hodge & Co., Edinburgh 1929; various reprints, including by Gaunt, 1995, ISBN 1-56169-173-9
- Andrew Rose, 'Lethal Witness' Sutton Publishing 2007, Kent State University Press 2009; Chapter Thirteen, 'Not Proven'
- Tom Tullett: Portrait of a Bad Man. Rinehart, New York 1956
- Colin Evans: Donald Merrett (1926). Freed by forensics to kill again , in: A question of evidence. The casebook of great forensic controversies, from Napoleon to OJ John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken 2003, ISBN 0-471-44014-0 , pp. 42-57
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Merrett, Donald |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Chesney, Ronald (pseudonym); Merrett, John Donald (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British killer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th August 1908 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1954 |
| Place of death | Cologne |